Great article by Sean Hollister on the demise of the QWERTY slider. In the article, Hollister speaks with Doug Kaufman, manager of handset strategy for Sprint, and his revelations are intriguing - it's not so much that people do not want hardware keyboards; it's that people want iconic, flagship phones - like the S4, like the 5S - with huge marketing pushes. Since nobody is pushing a flagship QWERTY slider... Nobody buys them. However, when you ask consumers what they want, physical keyboards are very, very popular.

And so, Kaufman admits: if there was an HTC One or Galaxy S4, a top-of-the-line phone, but with a keyboard - it would sell.

It's not about being able to, it's about wanting to have to bear the inconvenience.

Ah, so it's more of a luxury thing.

So, was the phone with a physical keyboard otherwise the same as one of the popular models already in market? No? Well, then you're comparing apples and oranges. Manufacturers only release mediocre phones with H/W-keyboards, so it's no wonder they don't sell. For once I'd love to see a how a high-end phone stacks against itself with and without a H/W-keyboard and not these lame apples-and-oranges comparisons.

I have no idea how good or bad the phone was. They asked the public would you buy one, the public said yes, the phone was released and the public didn't show up.

It's a guess, but I don't think an iPhone 5K would outsell and iPhone 5S. A small niche would buy one. But it would be too much hassle for Apple. All the different keyboards that need to be made. What if they get stuck with a number of Chinese phones, but they are out of stock in Finland? They can't even ship them there as most Fins don't want a phone with a Chinese keyboard.

As it happens there are plenty of times when I just do not have a table at hand nor can I just go home.

You must have a very busy life that sending these messages can't wait.

And what does that prove? Wow, you can jump through an extra step to see the content that should be visible even without such steps? Well, colour me wholly unimpressed.

Why should it be visible? I can see the entire, rather large, last message. I can see a whole lot and probably everything of each message I type.

How does your physical keyboard appear? Virtual keyboards appear automatically when needed and are easily disposed off. With physical ones you keep switching between them and the touch screen that is stuck in landscape mode.

"enough text" is a subjective thing. I would like to be able to see the whole message, not just parts of it.

An iPhone 5 is big enough, a 4S probably too. If you're in to Android you can get even bigger screens.

Aye, you're entitled to having such an opinion, but as I've been saying I find virtual keyboards infuriatingly cumbersome. Swype, Thumb Keyboard, whatever -- they all cumbersome and slow.

You admitted to standing while typing, so I assume you thumb type anyway. Yes, it is slower, but practice and your typing speeds will improve.

I never said I'm not able to use a virtual keyboard. I mean, sure, I can use a rock to drive a nail in the wall, but that doesn't mean that a hammer wouldn't be better for that task.

If you want to hit so many nails I'd suggest you bring the right tool for the job, so a laptop or one up over the phone: a tablet.

But how you describe your way of using technology I'm guessing you belong to a very small group that does it like that. That makes me doubt any company is going to take the gamble of making an high end phone with a physical keyboard.

Most mobile writers pack a laptop, because it has the best mobile keyboard.